


Broadband

by holytrohmans



Category: Fall Out Boy
Genre: M/M, VidCon, YouTube, may be smut later?? who knows, pete and patrick show up in later chapters, updating this as a write it today, youtube au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-07
Updated: 2015-11-24
Packaged: 2018-04-13 12:00:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 4,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4521153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/holytrohmans/pseuds/holytrohmans
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>HurleyFitness and TrohmanTutorials are on total opposite ends of the youtube spectrum in terms of video content. So how do they end up falling for each other?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. HurleyFitness

**Author's Note:**

> big shoutout to my trohley squad who pushed me to write this today. the chapters are gonna be somewhat short in the beginning just to cover backstory and such. enjoy!

Andy Hurley never intended for Youtube to become a full time job. 

When he first started, it was an accident. Matt was back home in Fuck City while Andy was visiting some friends in California and needed help with his morning workout. Since Andy wasn’t home and had literally no idea how to email the video, he figured uploading it to the popular sharing site and keeping it private would be the best bet. Although, in his technology inclined state, the video was put up as public. The four minute, unedited clip blew up over night and to this day, Andy still has no idea why, even though it’s been explained to him a million times. 

Apparently, his “simple” and “easy to digest” take on crossfit coupled with his “unique” voice and personality made it an instant hit. He still doesn't get why people are drawn to him, but is quoted as saying the whole experience is "pretty cool" and that there's "little else he'd rather be doing". After that, the rest of HurleyFitness is history. Google came sniffing around with a partnership deal shortly after his 100th video, his subscriber count already pretty substantial at 50,000, not bad for a fitness blog with iMovie edited videos. There was heavy competition in his genre but his grounded attitude was appealing to fitness' everyman, not the muscle-heads that the others were trying to attract.

A lot of people in the community credit him with his success because he never changed his style. Although he grew in fame he was still down to earth, the same shy smile greeting the viewer everytime they clicked on one of his thumbnails. His editing technique changed only slightly but was more organized and concise, fitting the growth of his channel well. The whole thing jelled, it worked.

He stayed humble, and the people liked that. He responded to every question, gave the viewers what they wanted to see.

It was a true rags to riches story.


	2. TrohmanTutorials

Joe Trohman was really fucking bored.

That’s how he describes it when people ask him later, “Why did you start youtube?” he was just really. fucking. bored.

He never had a viral video, nothing ever hit the front page so much so that he made it big. He sort of just had a steady trickle of subscribers that grew over several years, developing into a tight knit group of people, a small community. Starting back in 2008, aka the youtube dark ages, he uploaded a cover of The Smiths’ song “How Soon is Now” followed by a tutorial video of how he actually played it. The views came in slow but they were there, racking up to about 5,000 over three months.

The summer of 2014 he hit the major milestone of 25,000 subscribers. He celebrated by doing nothing, just a small thank you video and a smile. It fit the vibe of his channel, nothing flashy, just a man and his guitars.

His subscribers will often say they like his laid back attitude, coupled with the fact that he never takes himself too seriously. There’s times where he gets very into his work, showing his passion, but he’s never overexcited or exuberant. One commenter describes his voice as “soothing” and “fatherly”. He often drinks a beer on camera but offers guitar lessons in a multipart series that’s simple enough for young kids to learn. 

His videos are long and unedited, but you get the content you come for. He knows his audience. Everyone really sees him as the underdog of the youtube music scene, never putting out any original eps or demos for sale but instead releasing songs onto his soundcloud. His cult like following is just as chill as he is and the way he likes it. 

“I’m just a regular dude doing what I love” his channel bio states, and that’s really as complex as it gets.


	3. 100 new subscribers and an inbox ping

Joe wakes up at noon on a Thursday, not really thinking much as he opens his macbook and heads onto youtube. This is a normal routine for him, staring at the screen with sleep filled eyes and answering comments as he wakes up. But this morning is different, the twenty something has to blink when he looks at his notifications page that’s clearly stating he’s got about 100 new subscribers. Joe is extremely confused and snaps more awake, nearly spilling his hot coffee all over his laptop. They usually don’t come in this bulk of groups, he thinks. Something is up here. After a few minutes, he gets past all the new comments and subscriber notifications to the first one, and he’s already more confused than when he began.

It’s a fitness channel, and Joe is instantly struck by the “this isn’t your neck of the woods” mentality. He’s still thinking it’s a joke or a spam bot until he sees that this guys got almost double his subscribers, even more than that, and figures this is all some elaborate prank until he sees comments on his three most recent videos.

Turns out this fitness dude liked his last three covers (George Harrison’s “If Not For You”, Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters” and a super slowed down acoustic version of ACDC’s “Highway to Hell” that had the composition of a lullaby) so much that he commented his praises on them, including highlights such as “keep it up man :D” and “I love this dude!!” with a share on Google plus. This guy had even taken the trouble to finds one of his first videos and comment a freakin’ smiley face on it. Normally he’d be creeped out if someone went to such lengths to stalk him, but the fitness dude at least seemed normal, he wouldn’t lie. So he let it be, as he stalked the youtube page over himself.

The page was mostly short workouts and weightlifting. There was some dieting things from a featured contributor with a channel named StumpsHealthySecrets, but for the most part the whole channel was just this guy working out. But Joe was intrigued. See, he wasn’t the healthiest guy in the world, but the idea of cultures and sub genres fascinated him. YouTube was the best place for people like him, you can get entire glimpses at other peoples lives without even leaving your couch. And he did just that, before the guitarist knew it he was four hours in with a cup of cold coffee starting to smell beside him. 

Normally after a bingeing session like that, he’d feel ten kinds of regret for not doing anything with his day, but this time was different. He subscribed about an hour in and went back to his own channel to respond to comments, feeling slightly shellshocked. He didn’t know why he just watched so much, but he knew he was in too deep.

Joe forgot that he had a system set up into his subscriber box that sent out a new message every time someone subscribed to him, telling them his thanks and including his social media links. No one ever really responds to it, but his inbox pinged with one response today.

“I bet you say that to all your subscribers ;)” from mister HurleyFitness himself.


	4. heavy metal dubstep

Andy can’t sleep, which is out of the ordinary, because he usually is so tired from being up at six every morning that he could use the rest. But here he is, mindlessly clicking and dragging lips for his new video when he gets frustrated and minimizes the page. He could take some natural melatonin to sleep, but decides against it, figuring the internet can bore him enough.

The fitness vlogger clicks onto youtube to catch up on his subscriptions, but since it’s midnight, no one’s updated yet. Makes sense, because all his friends will be up in six hours anyways while he'll be groggy and annoyed. He sighs and starts trolling around, seeing what songs he should add to his workout mix, a usual spare time ritual Andy can do whenever he gets a free moment. Usually dubstep remixes of heavy metal songs will capture his attention, but the genre is underrated so theres not many suggested videos to accompany the end of each song. He’s just finished an interesting version of “Master of Puppets” when, for some reason, an acoustic performer with a very small view count (compared to his, at least) pops up. He’s curious, and the guy isn’t bad to look at, so he clicks away and is fascinated. 

Suddenly Andy finds himself immersed in this guys channel for hours, watching cover after cover. This guy likes literally all the same music as him, plus his appeal is somewhat interesting. The laid back attitude is totally appealing to Andy, he really just wants to be this guys friend. 

So when he gets a message that’s clearly an automatic notification, he tries some human contact (a tangent of life he usually doesn’t excel at outside the fitness world) and messages him back. All he can do is sit and wait after that, hoping he wasn’t too weird.


	5. a wild pete appears

Joe went out with Pete the next day, running the usual errands as Pete vlogged the entire experience. Pete could be one of the most closed off people he knew, yet always plastered his entire life all over the god damn internet.

“I’m here with my good buddy Joe today, guys. You know him as ‘TrohamTutorials’” The darker haired man pronounces it wrong on purpose with a cheeky smile, causing his friend to roll his eyes. “I’m on your channel like every other day man, I’m sure they’re not dumb enough to not know who I am.” He laughs a little, raising an eyebrow at the camera. “Or are you?”

“And we’re going grocery shopping today, cue the triumphant trumpet noise. Here we have the wild guitarist picking out some lovely produce” Joe flips off the camera and Pete turns it around quickly, the grin flashes again and he points a finger gun to the lens. “Youtubers, they’re just like us!” 

Normally, Pete’s constant vlogging would annoy the younger. Joe believed that he, as a youtuber, was more of a content-based person. Give the people what they come to your channel for and no pandering like they’re preschoolers. Unfortunately, 90% of his friend’s audience was teen girls, so the attention span wasn’t much different. Even with Pete’s million subscribers, Joe would only gain about 5 or 6 each time he was forced into a vlog.

The darker haired man took note of Joe’s disdain and would turn off the camera for a few minutes as they went about their business. “I saw you’re up like...a hundred subs, man” Pete says, picking up and inspecting an apple in almost too much detail. “What’d your nudes leak or something?” Joe rolls his eyes and tosses some more fruit into his basket. 

“Nah man, some fitness guy is stalking my channel” he shrugs, grabbing the latest Rolling Stone as he waits for Pete to be rung up. 

“Fitness, hm? Seems a little weird. Unless he’s got a beard fetish” Pete tickles the hairs on Joe’s chin as the younger chuckles and shoves him over to pay. “Don’t let him kidnap you and force you to lose ten pounds” his friend counters and Joe has to laugh a little.

By the time he gets home is subscriber count is up 245 more people, the number astounding Joe as he looks over to the message he had left behind in his inbox to go on the journey with Pete.

“What the fuck is this dude up to?” Joe says to himself, getting serious Internet predator vibes as he saw the winky face.

And, okay, he has to admit that fitness guy is the tiniest bit cute. He figures his weak, late twenty year old; completely out of shape body is not going to protect him from this big buff dude if he ever comes knocking. But if he was a serial killer, would he really have so many subscribers?

That’s the part that confused Joe to no end. This guy didn’t seem outgoing or brash like most famous youtubers were, especially Pete, for one. He’s calm, demure, this guy could easily be your best friend and you wouldn’t even bat an eyelash that he can dead lift 350 on a good day. So what was he doing talking to Joe?

“Actually I do,” Joe typed back, cursing himself for being the master of wit as always. “But only when I gain 200+ subs in one night. Are you like, a cult leader or something?” The guitarist sincerely hopes this dude understands jokes and hits send, leaning back in his chair with a sigh. This was gonna be a long night.


	6. patrick tries

Andy goes out for smoothies with Mixon and Kelly just to try to shake the thought of the handsome guitar tutorial dude. 

he works out not once, not twice, but three times that day just to distract himself from guy on YouTube and vegetating on the couch watching cover after cover of songs that he doesn't even know. 

he doesn't think he'll get a message back to be honest. he shouldn't have included the winky face anyways. he wouldn't respond to anybody with the ;). he was coming off as into pedophilia even though he was in his 30s and he was still afraid of Internet predators. 

Patrick comes over late in the day to try to talk some sense into him as andy was laying in bed, something that he never ever does, unless it's for sleeping. 

"so you have the hots for some guy that won't even message you back." he raises an eyebrow skeptically, taking off his fedora to run a hand through his hair. "seems kind of weird" he winces gently. "and he's not even from the health community. you're leaving out the biggest factor in your criteria for selecting a mate, you said it yourself. you've always said you wanted to be with someone, albeit, didn't even matter male or female, that wants to take care of themselves. he looks pretty unfit to me." Patrick says again gazing over a few thumbnails. 

if anyone was going to be the consultant on how fit someone was from their looks, it would be Patrick. who made his entire Youtube career off the before and after shots of his own body. Radical dieting and portion control being his key to success as, now, he helps other obese people in their life through his video blogs on health and fitness. Andy is his best friend and he honestly didn't want to see him get hurt. 

he clicks on a cover of "Life on Mars" and a few seconds in, Patrick's eyes light up. "I have to admit...he's pretty good" Andy puts a pillow over his head and hopes to smother himself but does so unsuccessfully. "but you shouldn't be lowering your standards, dude." Patrick says with another wince. 

The sound of an inbox pings and in two seconds flat Andy scrambles up like a dog who was just asked to go for a walk. Pushing his friend aside to get to his laptop he sees the message and chuckles under his breath Patrick reads over his shoulder and smiles "dudes kinda funny." Andy grimaces as he says that and looks over his shoulder, pinching his best friend's nose. "your services are no longer needed to here" and Patrick takes the note to leave. he's heard commenting as he walks out about not kidnapping this dude and forcing him to lose ten pounds. 

"A cult of personality, maybe" Andy types out, chucking quietly at his own joke. "but anyways, I can tell them not to if it bothers you." he feels slightly bad, knowing how weird it is to have people misunderstand your content. "I'm andy, by the way." and then simply. "I love your videos. we're basically musical soulmates." he hits send before he can regret it.


	7. a proposition

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> andy and joe figure out a way to meet up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> God bless my trohley squad. love them always.

one message turns into two, then two into three and so on and so forth until Andy's eagerly awaiting his phone to buzz every morning. they're on two different schedules, two different time zones, but they always find those sweet spots during the day to chat. 

Joe swears that this is unlike any drug he's ever had. good weed, club pills, they can't compare to the flame in his stomach whenever his phone rings. he'll swear he's never been in love before, but the highs and lows of this are too intoxicating to give up. 

the first time they Skype, Joe makes fun of Andy's Green Bay Packers duvet as soon as he answers the call. this pulls a deep red blush to his companions face that nearly makes joes heart stop, seeing it in person differing drastically from just the emoji. 

the fans start to notice a little later, joes army being very close knit as they watch who's pictures he likes. he never dares to comment anything out of fear and will usually just text him the critiques of beautiful nature shots from hiking and scantly clad selfies at the gym. the shipping starts right away, which brings vine edits and fanfictions (only two or three, which neither men will admit to reading, but heard they were poorly written and overly descriptive) 

it never seems like flirting. more like two people that have known each other forever catching up. there's no awkward winky faces, no long pauses in phone calls, it's just nice. Joe compared it to a warm sweater you've never grown into so you can wear it forever. andy simply puts it as coming home. 

the only problem is they can't mesh together to get to meet up. in the time leading up to conference season, meaning when big conventions like playlist and vidcon roll around, Andy's got classes to teach at the gym, joes booking gigs like never before with all his new subs, and no weekends work together that they're both free. except vidcon. 

and yeah, Joe really wasn't planning on going. he and Pete always got invited but never saw the fuss of flying all the way out to California. Pete's audience was always frustrated that he wasn't there, maybe Joe could convince him to go too if he got andy on board. 

Andy's hesitant at first, Joe basically having to beg him, pulling out puppy dog eyes like no ones ever seen before. it comes up one day over Skype and the older of the two falls silent. 

"do you really want that to be the first time we talk face to face, so public?" he says, tugging nervously at the ends of his beard. "in front of a crowd?"

"you're making it like us seeing each other is a main stage event." Joe gets out with a nervous chuckle, furrowing his eyebrows. "look, I know it's tough, okay? but maybe we can meet before hand? it doesn't have to be on the conference floor."

Andy's quiet for a long time, readjusting the strings on his hoodie, checking his phone with missed calls from Mixon and Patrick. 

"okay." he finally says. "but I bring the snacks" he flashes his friend a mischievous smile and Joe nearly collapsed. 

Joe lets out a laugh that's more relief than amusement and books his plane ticket as soon as they hang up.


	8. vidcon pt.1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you again to my trohley squad for being my ride or dies

Joe will swear up-and-down that he tried his best. he really did, he give it the old college try. but when he arrives at the conference floor, he was sucked up by a group of fans that he was totally not expecting. a good three fourths of them were his, and one fourth being Andy's. he found himself in a moving mass of signing autographs and taking selfies, all things that were way out of his comfort zone. Pete was already engulfed in a much bigger crowd of girls that look like hot topic threw up on them. his fans were nuts, so he was no help with joe's mob. 

the only reason that these kids in cross fit xvx t-shirts are surrounding him, he's assuming, is because andy isn't here yet. but the way they're all tapping mischievously on their phones isn't comforting to him. he signs each autograph anyways, thanking everyone for the attention. his skin is prickling and, deep down, he's hoping Andy doesn't find him like this. 

his mop of curly hair is the first thing Andy sees, he's got his back to the door and his friend is just as easy to spot in a lineup from the scruffy look he's got to him. keeping his sunglasses on, he checks his Twitter replies and nods to Mixon that the plan is a go. 

Joe can't help but get anxious when he hears the iPhone chime that emits from a few phones at first and suddenly all of them that everyone is recording. he starts to back up, thanking everyone for coming to see him, but accidentally bumps into someone, his back to their face. "I'm so sor-" he starts to say and whirls around, face to face with Andy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> come harass me at flowercrowntrohman on tumblr


	9. lost in this moment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> after they meet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry this took so long, the next chapter will come much faster, I promise.

They get back to Andy's room after a few hours of meet and greets and signing everything later, Joe closing the door behind him as he presses his back to it. "I gotta admit, Hurley," he says with a huge grin. "that was pretty sneaky of you" Joe finds himself unable to stop smiling the whole day, especially now that he's looking the man he's fallen in love with face-to-face. 

All Andy can do his muster a nervous smile as he looked on to the ground, his hand reaching the back of his head to rub his hair. "well you know I tried to keep it on the down low but you know how the fans can be!"  
"and Mixon, that kid really um..." Joe twists up his face in thought. "what's the word again?" He looks up to Andy, who's eyes have grown wide.

"ships us" the older laughs. "Mixon ships us together." Joe's face lights up in delight as he nods. "that's the word I was looking for, I knew it was something nautical!" he chuckles a little and finds his eyes wandering to the table in the hotel room. 

The stained wood surface nestled against the wall of the suite is covered with all kinds of health related gift baskets plus other items and trinkets, Joe not noticing this until just now. Andy pulls his backpack off his back and sets on the downside, unloading the things that the fans had given him. Joe touches the cellophane wrapping on a package of protein powder and looks up at him slowly. "you're pretty much a big deal aren't you?" he asks with a small smile. 

Andy's face immediately goes Crimson and he shakes his head furiously, his eyes wandering to the ground again. "it's not that it's just- just- I've been given so much. literally" his hands gesture to the table "and figuratively" he settles to explain this by wildly moving his hands in the air, which surprised his partner because the only time he was spastic about anything was during cool downs. "this is all just a lot and I find myself not knowing how to handle it, what to do with- with this!" he stutters out not really sure where he's going. "they love me a lot so I don't want to let them down." he sighs, running a hand through the small curls forming on his head from sweating out his gel. 

There's a awkward silence for a few seconds as the two bring their eyes up to meet "well, I love you" Joe says quickly and quietly. "and you're sure as hell not letting me down. as for everyone else, fuck 'em. because you're just...you're amazing, okay?"

The rush of emotion Andy feels in that moment is described later as the greatest high he'd ever felt, adrenaline or otherwise. He brings Joe in close to him, gripping at the fabric of his t-shirt like the other man will float away if he doesn't, and starts to cry.  
"It's so great to finally have you here with me" He chokes out, and Joe shushes him quietly, rubbing his head. "I know, man. I know" he whispers. 

Joe brings his lips to Andy's just to close the gap and make sure he stays silent.  
they sit there for a while, wrapped up in each other as they press slow, simple kisses onto every inch of each other's skin. Joe finds himself pushing up Andy's shirt, knowing he's much more comfortable that way, and traces the outlines of each and every work of art. Andy's phone buzzed on the floor but they ignore it, mostly tweets and videos of their first meeting. They make a collective, unspoken desicion that there's some intimate moments that need to be not live streamed to the world, and this is one of them. The sun sets and they still sit, tangled in each other, both wishing that they could stay in this moment forever.


End file.
